'Witches' Potion Works Wonders For Michelle Pfeiffer

August 19, 1988|By Harold Reynolds , KNT News Service

NEW YORK — It appears the 1987 movie version of The Witches of Eastwick has generated more magic than just the box-office kind. Consider what has happened during the past year to the three actresses who played the title characters in the popular film comedy.

Cher, who starred as sculptor Alexandra Medford, earned praise last fall for her performance as a dedicated public defender in Suspect. In April, she won an Academy Award as best actress for her work in the romantic comedy Moonstruck.

Meanwhile, Susan Sarandon, who played music teacher Jane Spofford in Witches, currently is reveling in some of the best reviews of her career, thanks to Bull Durham, in which she plays a sexy baseball fanatic.

Now, it seems good things are about to happen to Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Sukie Ridgemont, the third member of the Witches trio. The 30-year-old actress, a veteran of such motion pictures as Scarface, Ladyhawke, Into the Night and Sweet Liberty, headlines the new movie Married to the Mob with probably her most colorful role.

When her husband is murdered by a mob chieftain (Dean Stockwell), Angela finds herself romantically pursued by the killer, harassed by the mob chieftain's jealous wife (Mercedes Ruehl), and shadowed by an unlikely FBI agent (Matthew Modine).

''You know, the thing is when you're in a movie that makes money -- and it doesn't matter if it's good or not -- then you get a lot of offers for other movies. And that's how it works,'' Pfeiffer said recently. ''Certainly, since Witches, the choices and the quality of the choices have expanded for me, and I'm sure they have for Susan and for Cher.''

Pfeiffer says she assumed that she and her Witches co-stars would experience nothing but bad luck as a result of that production, much of which was filmed on location in Massachusetts.

''Supposedly, these witches in Salem put a curse on us,'' she said. ''And there were all of these weird things happening. Cher was getting in car accidents, and she hurt her shoulder. We all got cats; they all disappeared. So we assumed that there was some curse that was put on us, though it doesn't seem to be. Everything seems to be fine.''

Pfeiffer considers Angela DeMarco of Married to the Mob to be one of the best screen roles she's ever had. And it's quite an accomplishment for the former supermarket clerk who began her acting career playing roles as sexpots. ''The thing that I love about Angela is that she is a lot of things, like people are. She is strong and she's kind of tough and she's feisty. But she's vulnerable and she's soft and she's a lot naive, too. She's a human being.''

For her transformation into a mob wife, Pfeiffer donned a dark wig to cover her familiar blond tresses. The golden girl from southern California also worked to develop a Long Island accent.

''I have a pretty good ear for dialects and sounds,'' she said. ''I went to a great dialect coach and I spent a lot of time on Long Island. I met some fantastic women out there who spent a lot of time with me and read my lines into a tape recorder.

''And I was in New York, so it was all around me. A lot of the crew was from Long Island, and they would come up to me and they would offer suggestions.''

Pfeiffer, who had always wanted to work with Demme, was surprised when she finally received an opportunity to collaborate with him on a film.

''I was on vacation and kind of unreachable,'' she recalled. ''I was staying with a friend in Italy by the sea, and there was no phone. There was no way that anyone could get in touch with me. And all of a sudden one day, this woman comes knocking on the door and says, 'Call your agent.' They somehow got hold of a neighbor.

''I actually thought that Jonathan didn't like my work because I had wanted to work with him a few times before, and he didn't really respond. So they sent me the script and I read it, and really liked it. And then I met Jonathan and things happened.''

As it turns out, because of her work in Married to the Mob, Demme has become one of Pfeiffer's ardent admirers.

''This is such a step aside for Michelle,'' he said. ''And for me, it's proof positive that she's as exciting an actress as we've got today working in movies. She can challenge anybody and hang right there with the very, very best.

''This part is just scratching the surface for Michelle. She didn't begin to test her limits at all with this.''